Dale Eric Wurster, PhD, professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Experimental Therapeutics, is the recipient of the Ralph Shangraw Memorial Prize. The award, presented by the International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council (IPEC) Foundation, is bestowed upon a person who has provided outstanding research contributions in the study of excipients or excipient-related technology over a number of years.

Wurster is the author or co-author of over 200 peer-reviewed abstracts and research articles, and he has served as major professor for 32 PhD graduates. His research largely falls under the heading of materials science. As such, it has contributed to the basic science underpinning oral solid dosage form fabrication and quality, as well as to the areas of adsorption-desorption behavior and adsorbent surface characterization. 

Analytical techniques which figure prominently in his research are isoperibol calorimetry, compression calorimetry, differential scanning calorimetry, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), computer modelling, dynamic vapor sorption, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Financial support has come from the Department of Defense, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the pharmaceutical industry.

Wurster is an American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Fellow (1998), and the recipient of an AAPS Research Achievement Award in Manufacturing Science and Engineering (2009), as well as a 2015 Distinguished Pharmacy Alumni Awardee from Purdue University. Wurster is currently Chair of the Faculty Committee (July 2017- June 2018) of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education (NIPTE). He also has chaired both the AAPS Publications Committee and the AAPS Fellows Committee. Wurster has served on various committees of the United States Pharmacopeia for 20 years, and has served on various committees of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy for 32 years.